Not Much to Lose in Move From Coal

Barack Obama need not ask how well he's doing in coal country, because the answer is always the same: Not well.

A cerebral black man never had much of a chance in poor, rural white Appalachia; let's be honest (though we don't have to like it). In 2012, Obama lost to Mitt Romney in West Virginia by a 27-point margin. So Obama had little to lose politically in proposing new rules to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

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